FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Aug. 24, 2018 (EIRNS)—Since yesterday morning, President Donald Trump has conducted an open dialogue involving his Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the entire world. It began with an interview he gave to Fox and Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt and reached a high point of intensity with his response to Sessions’ assertion that he did take charge of the Justice Department and “Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Trump replied in a two-part tweet:

“Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the ‘other side’ including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, ... FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems—and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”

When Earhardt asked Trump about rumors that Sessions and his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be fired, Trump talked about releasing all of the documents on the conduct of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team. “At the right time I think I have to do the documents,” Trump said, and that he had wanted to stay uninvolved, but that the level of the witch hunt, the surveillance of the campaign, and the other activity meant that he had to act.

The interview had begun as a discussion of the broadly promoted claim of the dual disaster: The nearly simultaneous announcement of the conviction of Paul Manafort on 8 of the 18 charges against him, and the plea bargain deal negotiated by his former attorney Michael Cohen.

Trump explained that Cohen was one of many attorneys that he used, primarily on what he called “small deals.” He pointed out that none of the charges against Cohen involved his Presidential campaign. He explained that the payments Cohen pled guilty to making as illegal campaign financing were not paid for by the campaign and Cohen pled guilty to acts that were not, therefore, even crimes. Trump pointed out that Obama paid large fines for “huge” violations and that almost every Presidential campaign has committed violations that are generally treated as civil, not criminal, infractions. He explained that Cohen had a variety of criminal difficulties involving his taxi cab and other business interests unrelated to Trump, and that he was able to cut a deal in exchange for incriminating Trump. Referring to both the Cohen and Manafort cases, he referred to the DOJ practice of “flipping,” and said it should be illegal. He described how someone can get out of 10 or more years of prison by testifying against someone else, regardless of the truth of that testimony.